302 



BAY, SEA OR DIVING DUCKS 



American Eider 



Somateria mollissima dresseri 

 (so-ma-t-ri-a, mo-lis-i-ma, dress-e-ri) 



Colour Plates Nos. 24 and 29. Downy Young No. 34. 

 SCIENTIFIC NAME 



Somateria, from Greek, somatos, meaning the body, and erion, meaning wool, 

 down (referring to the down of the body); mollissima, Latin, meaning very soft, 

 referring to the softness of the down; dresseri, in honour of Henry E. Dresser 

 (1838-1915), celebrated English ornithologist, who published "Birds of Europe" 

 in 9 volumes, 1871-81. 



COLLOQUIAL NAMES 



IN GENERAL USE: Sea-duck, very often sea-ducks and drakes, sometimes shortened 

 to ducks and drakes. IN LOCAL USE: Big sea-duck; canvasback; black-and-white coot; 

 Eskimo duck; Isle-of -shoals duck; laying duck; looby; metik (Eskimo name); moyac; 

 moyak; passing birds; pied wamp; sea-coot; shoal duck; shoreyer; squam duck; 

 squaw duck; wamp. 



DESCRIPTION 



ADULT MALE. WINTER PLUMAGE: Head. Forehead, region around eye and 

 crown, iridescent glossy black, crown divided along middle by white streak orig- 

 inating in hindhead; cheek, chin, throat and neck, white; hindhead, sea green, 

 this colour extending forward narrowly under black cap almost to bill (in the 

 Northern Eider this line of colour does not extend 

 as far forward); narrow, indistinct line of white 

 down side of head; eye, brown; bill, variable, from 

 grey to green, in spring, orange yellow; nail, al- 

 most white, fused with bill and forming entire 

 tip of upper mandible; bill-processes (fig. 51), 

 from each side of base of bill a leathery process 

 extends well up into forehead and terminates in 

 broad, rounded tip (those of Northern Eider, much 

 narrower, end in sharp, pointed tips), these processes 

 divided by thin line of feathering on culmen; 

 feathering of head, at lores, extends forward on 

 upper mandible to below hind end of nostril, and 

 is sharp -pointed terminally (similar feathering on 

 bill of Northern Eider does not extend as far to- 

 wards nostril). Body. Back and scapulars, white to 

 creamy white; chest, white, tinged with pale creamy 

 brown; rump, black, with white patches on flanks; 

 breast, belly and sides, black; feet, yellow or green, 

 webs dusky. Tail and its coverts, black. Wings. 

 Lesser and middle coverts, white, dusky along for- 

 ward edge of wing; greater coverts, black, in some 

 cases with white tips, or occasionally with central 

 feathers white or mottled white and greyish; pri- 

 maries, black; outer secondaries, black; inner sec- 

 ondaries, white, and sickle-shaped; tertials, white; FlG - M Bill-processes of the 

 lining, grey and white; axillars, white. Eiders. Top, American Eider. 



ECLIPSE PLUMAGE: The moult into the eclipse Middle, Northern Eider. 



Bottom, Pacific Eider. 



